Diagnostic performance of inflammatory biomarkers and cytological analysis in salivary gland tumors

Abstract Background This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of serum inflammatory biomarkers in salivary gland tumors with dubious results following cytological analysis. Methods A retrospective analysis of 239 cases following surgery between January 2011 and June 2022 was performed. Receiver Operating Characteristic curves were drawn and areas under the curves were computed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the inflammatory biomarkers (SII, SIRI, PLR, and NLR). Optimal cut‐offs for each marker were determined by maximizing the Youden index. Results Analysis showed that among the major biomarkers examined, SIRI performed an AUC of 0.77. The best SIRI cut‐off was 0.94 with an accuracy of 79.9%. The accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of cytological analysis were 77.8%, 59.6%, and 90.7% respectively. By combining SIRI with cytological analysis we demonstrated an increase in sensitivity to 82.8%. Conclusions Inflammatory biomarkers could be evaluated to support the diagnosis and treatment of salivary gland tumors in difficult cases.